Northern Stage, NewcastleDr Victoria Frankenstein is the gender-switched, life-creating star of Lorne Campbell's radical and illuminating gothic rebootThe year is 1831: debarred from attendi…
West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsUpdated to a minimalist live/work space full of digital sound manipulation, Sam Pritchard's production plays on the pain of judging people by how they speakNot…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeChristian Edwards makes an absorbing hero in this swaggering adaptation of Rostand's tale, featuring some brilliant baroque musicNorthern Broadsides has built it…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterGraeae use British Sign Language to bring new depths to Federico GarcÃa Lorca's play, with Kathryn Hunter on vicious formIf ever the time was right for a reappra…
Belgrade, CoventrySatinder Chohan's compelling play about a woman desperate to become a mother draws intense performances from its castWhen Satinder Chohan commenced work on a drama set in a…
Octagon, BoltonJessica Baglow is radiant as the gobby but intellectually insatiable hairdresser who spars with her boozy Open University lecturerIf one thing has altered in the 37 years sinc…
Royal Exchange, ManchesterAnna Jordan's prize-winning play about two teenagers living alone in a filthy flat is difficult to watch yet easy to loveAnna Jordan's Bruntwood prize-winning play …
The Liverpudlian folk-singer has written the drama she always wanted to write, drawing upon her grandfather's shocking experiences of war at seaOver the past 10 years, Lizzie Nunnery has pur…
Opera House, ManchesterCBeebies' resident clown shares his origin myth at a Manchester international festival appearance that is seriously sillySo who is the hottest ticket at this year's Ma…
41 Monkgate, York F Scott Fitzgerald's novel comes to life in the Guild of Misrule's fancy-dress interpretation, though you may be too busy playing spin the bottle to hear the whole story My…
Crucible, Sheffield Powered by Anna-Jane Casey's explosive central turn, this version of Irving Berlin's musical wisely tones down the misogyny and racismThe American election result is undo…
Curve, LeicesterDavid Wood sensibly doesn't try to overextend what is one of Dahl's most concise works, but he does keep the audience " especially the bearded members " on their toesOne hund…
Lyceum, SheffieldThere's tragedy at the core of French's roly-poly persona " yet the place she finds herself in appears to be a good oneIt's extraordinary to consider that Dawn French has li…
Liverpool PlayhouseThis celebration of the 19th-century Star theatre is neither boring nor educational " just as Ken Dodd advised its writer, Michael Wynne Liverpool's theatres seem to be in…
Theatre Royal, YorkBerwick Kaler is back for his 38th pantomime, which bursts with traditional surreal humour and features a Suzi Quatro cameoWe all need a bit of light escapism around this …
Live theatre, NewcastleFirst-time writer Nina Berry's deftly original and intelligent two-hander about Christmas wishes and quantum mechanics displays astonishing confidencePantomime season …
Royal Exchange, ManchesterA luckless New York dancer takes scraps from a rich man's table in a terrific-looking and sounding revival of the 60s show written by Neil SimonHas there ever been …
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughIn two Christmas stocking-fillers, Knowing Her and Knowing Him, a couple celebrating 40 years of marriage discover the deep freeze in their relationshipIt'…
Birmingham RepLong John Silver swaggers perilously close to child abuse while his parrot pecks out dissenters' eyes in this darkened voyage through Stevenson's taleRobert Louis Stevenson con…
Curve, LeicesterNikolai Foster's production returns to the musical's roots, restoring rarely heard tunes and replacing the sanitised film's California beaches with Chicago's mean streetsEver…
Nottingham PlayhouseKenneth Alan Taylor delivers dancing bunnies, vintage show tunes and 19 kilos of glitter for a perfect balance of old and newYou know you're in panto land when it suddenl…
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeTheresa Heskins whisks Andersen's fairytale back to its Danish roots, adding a snow flurry of hygge and revealing its debt to DickensAt the end of a year in whic…
Northern Stage, Newcastle Mark Calvert's charming revival robs Roald Dahl's story of its dramatic climax but makes up for it with a swinging score and plenty of New York sass If you had to p…
Home, ManchesterSeemingly located in the only fjord in range of Weatherfield, Polly Findlay's powerful revival features some fine performancesWhen Ibsen's Ghosts was first produced in London…
Live theatre, NewcastleThe radical thinker's appetite for hypnotism leads to a delightful debunking of Victorian pseudoscienceThe radical Victorian thinker Harriet Martineau was a woman ahea…